Yuan Chenye won the gold medal at the 10th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1994, and was a jury member at the 15th Competition in 2015. He has also won first prize at Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition in Finland and was a national winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in New York. Chenye has established himself as one of the leading baritones at National Center for the Performing Arts(NCPA)in Beijing. In 2013, He shared the title role of "Nabucco" with Placido Domingo in Gilbert Deflo's new production, conducted by Eugene Cohn. In 2014, he had done the revival and conducted by Massimo Zanetti. In the same year, he played the title role of "Eugene Onegin" in Alexei Stepanyuk's production under the baton of Valery Gergiev. In 2015, He played the role of Amonasro in Francesco Micheli's new production of Aida conducted by Zubin Mehta. Also in 2015, he debuted the role of Carlo Gerard in David Mcvicar's production of “Andrea Chenier.In 2016, Chenye Yuan sang the role of Wolfram in Pier'Alli's new production of “Tannhäuser”; Escamillo in Francesca Zambello's production of "Carmen" and Sergeant Vaskov in "the Dawns Here Are Quiet". These four operas conducted by Lv Jia. In 2017, he performed the role of Chou Enlai at Houston Grand Opera's "Nixon in China", directed by James Robinson and conducted by Robert Spano. The role he has also sung at San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Opera Colorado, Cincinnati Opera,Chicago Opera Theatre,Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra in New Zealand. He has performed the title role of "Rigoletto" in nine different productions, among them include: Welsh National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Palm Beach Opera, Sacramento Opera, San Antonio Opera, Opera Theatre of St.Louis and NCPA in Beijing.

Other recent engagements include: Michele in "Il Tabarro" and the title role in "Gianni Schicchi" at Opera Carolina; Umeya in Huang Ruo's "Dr.Sun Yat-Sen" at Santa Fe Opera, Renato in "Un Ballo in Maschera" at Boston Lyric Opera Prince Seikyo in Tun Dun's "Tea: A Mirror of the Soul" with Vancouver Opera and Giorgio Germont in "La Traviata" at Xi'An Concert Hall and ShangHai Summer Music Festival.

His concert engagements include：Krzysztof Penderecki's "Three Chinese songs" with GuangZhou Symphony Orchestra (with the composer conducting) and Carmina Burana; Ye XiaoGang's "Songs of the earth" with Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Certer's Avery Fisher Hall and Bamberg Symphony in Germany; "Lin An's seven songs" with Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra at Shanghai Spring International Music Festival, "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" and Carmina Burana with China Philharmonic Orchestral at Beijing Forbidden City Concert Hall and Poly Theatre; Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit and Tian Jing Symphony Orchestra at Tianjing Grand Theatre conducted by Muhai Tang; Hadyn's "The Creation" with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Neville Marriner; Mahler’s 8th Symphony conducted by Yoel Levi at NCPA; Nixon in China with Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia Festival with Marin Alsop conducting and Verdi Gala Concert conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano also at NCPA.

In 2017-18 season, Yuan Chenye performed as the soloist at the world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s 6th symphony with Guang Zhou Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yu Long in Guangzhou and at Beijing Music Festival, which marks the orchestra's 60th season opening . He also plays the title role of "Manas" with the Central Opera House in its world premiere in Beijing. Later on, he performs at the opening concert of "Russian Cultural Year in China" with Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev. Subsequently, he plays sergeant Vaskov again in the revival of "the Dawns Here Are Quiet" at NCPA; he also plays the role of Wen Tianxiang in the world premiere of "Marco Polo" which presented by Guangzhou Opera House in Beijing in 2018-19 season. He plays the role of Germont in La Traviata at NCPA conducted by Renato Palumbo,and will sing the role again at Vancouver Opera in 2019-20 season. Yuan is currently a vocal professor at Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.